Explosions at the Festival of St. Michael

In Mexico you often see both towns and people named after saints. Each saint in the Catholic tradition has a corresponding festival. The festival dedicated to St. Michael (or San Miguel as he is known in Spanish) is at the end of September and is heavily celebrated in San Miguel de Allende.

Part of the festivities is the blowing up of small paper mache dolls that are spun atop poles that are carried by people who run through the crowd. When the doll explodes treats that are attached to their small platform shower the crowd. Kids grab the treats and small toys that scatter at each explosion and also scramble to collect the heads that are left from the paper mache figures.

Nothing more exciting than running through a crowd sporting a spinning doll on a stick that's about to explode!

Going, going, gone!

Score! One devil's head and a packet of tamarind candy. Even I got in on the action.

As you can tell from the photo above and the ones below, not everyone loves the noise even though the potential for goodies is high.

Post explosion clean-up

Explosion goodies. I actually kept these heads for a long time.

Having a beer at Oso Azul with five heads after the event.

Festival de San Miguel

San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México

September 2018